MPs query Sh1.6bn spent on stalled irrigation plan

The Public Investments Committee (PIC) chairman Adan Keynan. Photo/FILE 

By EDWIN MUTAI, emutai@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• PIC dismayed by amount of money drained into yet to take off Galana-Kulalu scheme.
• Out of the Sh1.6 billion already spent, Sh920 million went to consultancy.
• The committee questioned the reasons for the change of the project scope and the technology to be deployed after the presidential launch.

Parliament expressed outrage over the Sh1.6 billion spent on the planned one-million acre Galana-Kulalu irrigation scheme.

 

It emerged that President Uhuru Kenyatta had commissioned the project without a final feasibility study and funding commitments.

As a result, the first phase of the project under which the government intended to put 100,000 acres of land under irrigation in the last financial year has not taken off seven months after its commissioning.

Out of the Sh1.6 billion already spent, Sh920 million went to consultancy.

The Public Investments Committee (PIC) was shocked to learn that the National Irrigation Board (NIB), the lead agency in the project, was not involved in the invitation of Mr Kenyatta to launch the project early this year.

“I don’t wish to dwell on the President’s invite to Galana. The ministry is better placed to answer. We are the implementing agency, but we never invited the President to Galana,” NIB chief executive and general manager Daniel Barasa told the committee on Tuesday evening.

“By the time the President came, close to about 3,000 acres of the 10,000-acre model farm had been cleared…there was something for him to see. A number of roads and two airstrips were ready. It was, in my view a good time for him to come.”

READ: Ministry clears 3,000 acres for Galana pilot irrigation scheme

The committee chaired by Eldas MP Adan Keynan questioned the reasons for the change of the project scope and the technology to be deployed after the presidential launch.

“How come the President was invited to commission a project whose funding was not available and procurement process not executed? Was this meant to circumvent due process of law or use the name of President to achieve other motives?” posed Mr Keynan.

“There is nothing that has been done. This is the third time that the President is commissioning a project yet there were no funds or tendering.

This is the bit that puzzles us. On the face of it, NIB has spent Sh1.6 billion on a project whose funding has not been secured.”

Kitui West MP Francis Nyenze took the NIB chief to task over the huge expenditure on consultancy.

“Expenditure of Sh920 million in consultancies alone is huge. What justification is there to spend such sums of money for a moribund project, which appears to have been ill-conceived?” asked Mr Nyenze.

The MPs also questioned the expenditure of Sh100 million out of the $651 million (Sh57 billion) budget for the development of the 10,000-acre model farm and Sh50 million for facilitation (including travelling and vehicles).